Johann Matthäus Hassencamp

Who was Johann Matthäus Hassencamp?

Johann Matthäus Hassencamp was a German Orientalist and Protestant theologian born in Marburg.

He studied philology, mathematics, theology and philosophy at the Universities of Marburg and Göttingen. Afterwards, he continued his studies in France, Holland and England, followed by a return to Marburg, where in 1768 he received his habilitation. Later, he became a professor of Oriental languages and mathematics at the University in Rinteln, where in 1777 he was given additional responsibilities as head of the university library.

Among his better known written works was an exegetical treatise on the Pentateuch and a 1793 biography of theologian Johann David Michaelis. From 1789 until his death, he was publisher of the influential weekly magazine Annalen der neuesten theologischen Litteratur und Kirchengeschichte. In the fields of mathematics and physics, he published a work on the history involving efforts to determine longitude, titled Kurze Geschichte der Bemühungen die Meereslänge zu erfinden.